Module BUSS40215: Marketing and Consumer Psychology

Department: Business School (Business) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

BUSS40215: Marketing and Consumer Psychology

Tied To

• N5K209: Marketing Management (see Postgraduate Handbook 2014-2015 for details)
• N5K309: Strategic Marketing (see Postgraduate Handbook 2014-2015 for details)

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To emphasise the importance of understanding consumers in formulating marketing strategy. A particular significance will be placed on the understanding of consumers in the development of an organisational market orientation and on the use of consumer behaviour in the resolution of tactical and strategic marketing problems.
• The module will cover a range of marketing and consumer psychology theories and applications that are being used in industry, academia and by researchers within Durham Business School.

Content

• Content will include, but is not limited to, subjects such as:
• Involvement
• Communication
• Attitudes
• Learning and Memory
• Perception and the Self
• Innovation and New Product Buying
• Imagination
• The Psychology of Business to Business Marketing
• Retail Psychology/Situational and Environmental issues
• Consumer Misbehaviour
• Impulse Buying
• The content taught each year will change to reflect the interests and current research of the marketing psychology group at Durham Business School.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will:
• Have a critical understanding of the psychology of individual, situational, environmental and cultural (inter-personal) influences on behaviour
• Be able to recognise the decision-making processes that individuals undertake
• Have a critical appreciation of why and how an understanding of psychology is important for marketing
• Have gained the necessary subject knowledge to enable them to observe, interpret and demonstrate marketing and consumer psychology in action
• Be able to understand the latest research issues and instruments in Marketing and Consumer Psychology.

• By the end of the module, students will have acquired the following specialist skills at an advanced level:
• Ability to critically evaluate one’s own behaviours as consumers.
• Ability to develop and evaluate marketing strategies in the light of marketing and consumer psychology theory.
• Ability to critique consumer research reports.

• Effective written and oral communication skills
• Planning, organising and time management skills
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• The ability to use initiative
• Advanced skills in the interpretation of data
• Advanced computer literacy skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module will be taught in 3-hour blocks to allow a greater level of engagement with students and to enable a flexibility of approach as appropriate. The teaching blocks will comprise a balanced mix of lecture-type teaching, group work, case studies, discussion and seminar style working such as will enable the learning outcomes to be met.
• The summative assessment of the module, by written examination and group presentation, is designed to test students’ knowledge and understanding of the subject-matter and their ability to apply their knowledge and specialist skills in the context of specific issues in marketing psychology.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

1500-word essay. In addition, seminar exercises will be used to give students an opportunity to explore, discuss, critique and apply the key topics in practice.